Whom to trust when it comes to the oft-conflicting world of how to eat healthy? Between all the TV nutritionists, cookbook authors, health “experts," and massive cybersphere of recipe bloggers, it can be easy to start believing that any food—Potato chips! Margarine! Frozen whipped dessert!—is clean as long as it has coconut or doesn’t have gluten (spoiler alert: neither is true). That’s why we’ve culled 7 real authorities on real food and put them all in one place: EatClean.com, a new website for all the news, views, stories, and recipes on things that are made from Mother Earth, not in a freaky science lab. Consider them your fantasy food team who can help make eating in the real world a real lot easier.
Stefanie Neal
Who she is: Food-app visionary
License to Blog: Neal is the culinary genius behind Food Fix Up, a popular app featuring more than 100 gluten-, dairy-, and refined-sugar-free dishes. With 58,000-plus Instagram followers, Neal has inspired many to find both health and delight in the kitchen.
Find her on EatClean For: Recipes for terrific allergy-free dishes not found on her app.
Starter tip: "When you live on packaged foods, fresh produce can seem plain. But shop and cook smarter and a strawberry can taste like the best thing you've ever eaten."
Dawna Stone
Who she is: Health and diet expert
License to Blog: First Stone started a fitness magazine and a marathon series. Then she won The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. Now she's a national health speaker and recently wrote The Healthy You Diet, which teaches people to eat better—and lose weight in the process—by cooking delicious meals free of dietary toxins.
Find her on EatClean for: Easy-to-make dishes using lighter, whole-food ingredients that clean up classic meals.
Starter tip: "Find creative, delicious ways to eat more veggies: Add pureed carrots to tomato sauce, kale to soup, or pumpkin to baked goods."
Who she is: Chef, TV host, author
License to blog: A former contestant on Bravo's Top Chef, a judge on Iron Chef America, and a prolific cookbook author, Kumai is one of the country's most recognized clean-food chefs. Many of her recipes are gluten-free and use only a few ingredients. (Check out 12 of Kumai's recipes created to make you feel like your sexiest self.)
Starter tip: "Use a high-quality blender for your smoothies, like a Vitamix, instead of a juicer, which can destroy nutrients in fresh produce and removes the healthy fiber, too."
Jodi Moreno
Who she is: Chef and photographer
License to blog: Moreno's award-winning food blog, What's Cooking Good Looking, has won national attention for its gorgeous food photography and sumptuous recipes, which transform seasonal ingredients into dinner-party-worthy dishes.
Starter tip: "Eat as close to the source as possible for maximum health and flavor. That means shopping at a store that sells local, going to your farmers' market whenever possible, and even harvesting food from your backyard."
Who she is: Neuroscientist, former dieter
License to blog: Rose was just another university student on a mission to get thin when she discovered that real science paired with real food offers the best way to lasting weight loss. Today she spreads the message on her blog, Summer Tomato, named one of Time's 50 Best Websites.
Find her on EatClean for: Her mental tricks and tips to lose weight without dieting.
Starter tip: "Never tell yourself that you should or shouldn't eat something. Instead, find legit reasons to eat or skip it, like It's delicious or It'll make me groggy. Take morals out of the equation and food guilt will go away."
Who he is: Food-biz insider
License to blog: After 20-plus years as a marketing exec for industry leaders like Whole Foods, Dobrow knows what really happens behind closed doors in the natural-foods world. The experience inspired him to write the book Natural Prophets, which details the health-food boom and the minds who drove it.
Find him on EatClean for: A behind-the-curtain look at clean-food trends, what labeling really means, and the best natural companies.
Starter tip: "Not every food producer can afford the certification for the Non-GMO Project Verified seal, so to avoid GMOs, the best thing to do is to buy organic—because by law, if it's organic, it's also non-GMO."
Amy Pruess
Who she is: Foodie turned chef
License to blog: When a health crisis upended her life, Pruess overhauled her diet by teaching herself to cook clean. Energized by success, she launched the blog Parsley in My Teeth to help aspiring everyday cooks turn wholesome cuisine into a daily reality.
Find her on EatClean for: Fast, original recipes rich in common superfoods.
Starter tip: "Eat like your life and the health of the planet depend on it—because they do."
